TV Multitaskers Can Get Jacked

Jacked is a service aimed at multitasking sports fans for whom merely watching the big game on oldteevee is not enough. It’s a little different than most of the online video sites we cover in that, well, it doesn’t do video. Instead, the company is looking to enhance the television-watching experience by delivering a stream of real-time data to your computer, such as up-to-the-minute stats, visualizations of plays and info on your favorite players.

At first, that may sound like a superfluous service — why balance your laptop (and your beer) while you root for your home team? But consider a recent study Harris Interactive performed on behalf of Blinkx, which found that:

When it comes to television viewing, the survey showed that more than three in four adults are doing the two-screen tango. Viewers aren’t necessarily abandoning their TV in favor of the Web; many are using the Web as an accompaniment to their TV viewing. In fact, 78% U.S. adults go online while watching TV, and more than a third of them do so always or often.

The service is in beta (of course), free, and web-based, so there is no download required, though you do have to register. Right now, Jacked only provides data on football, basketball (NBA and NCAA) and hockey. Once inside, you can customize your experience with different widgets like player profiles, boxscore stats and play-by-plays, have it search for relevant items in YouTube and Flickr, or trash talk with other fans via IM.

Jacked software scours the web and other media to “watch” and “listen” to other media coverage that it uses to update its stats in real time. One source of information is the closed caption feed, which Jacked scrapes from broadcasts to harvest data.

Founded in June 2007, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Jacked has raised $6.5 million in venture funding from Provenance Ventures, Core Capital Partners and Gabriel Venture Partners. Natch, Jacked plans to make money through advertising and sponsorships. One potential model is the one the company used with NBC Sports for Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Jacked set up its service on nbcsports.com, and took a portion of the ad revenue that NBC sold into the section.

Jacked wouldn’t divulge the number of registered users it has, but it’s hard to imagine this appealing to anyone outside of the hard-core sports fan set. And it doesn’t have official relationships with any of the leagues. Jacked touts this independence as a plus, but it’s hard to believe that the company wouldn’t be better served with partnerships of some kind.

Sports is just the first market for Jacked. It’s also eyeing expansion into award shows (think: pulling up Javier Bardem’s bio as he accepts an award) and financial news.